The Red Heifer Sacrifice

I think this may qualify as my strangest title yet. When I think of the word strange, I often automatically remember that we are a peculiar people, and then where the word peculiar comes from. The idea that a peculiar people are the private property of the Lord, rather than necessarily a strange people in our modern usage, is delicious to me. (Incidentally, private comes from roots that suggest 'set apart, belonging to oneself'; while public suggests 'pertaining to the people', which I think of in simpler terms as 'worldly'.) We are God's property.

1 Cor 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

I have been studying and pondering regarding the sacrifice required of us, namely a broken heart and a contrite spirit. (We're looking at that topic in our group study next week, so I may put some of our thoughts up on the topic following that.)

As I was reading from Psalms 51 on this topic, I was taken by the beauty of the scriptures there. Mentions of the Lord's loving kindness, his tender mercies, the plea for the Lord to create in David a new heart following his sin regarding Bathsheba, as also that a right spirit might be renewed in him, and so on... Wonderful.

Verse seven mentions, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean." Hyssop is defined in the bible dictionary as a type of wild marjoram (i.e. an herb, and a delicious one at that!), but what wasn't clear to me from Psalms or the Bible Dictionary was what the reference to hyssop was doing in the midst of David's psalm.

Thankfully, a footnote took me to Numbers 19, and the regulations under the Mosaic law of the sacrifice of the red heifer. We understand that the law of Moses typifies the mission, doctrine, and sacrifice of Jesus Christ (1), but this is true not just generally, but also in the detail. Numbers 19 is filled with such detail, and it was a pleasure to read, ponder, and be taught by the Spirit over. Incidentally, as with any symbols in the scriptures, the Lord has many meanings in mind, all of which are part of one great truth. I shall simply relate what I felt and understood, and leave it to any who read to judge these things against those things we can be sure of - the words of prophets and scripture.

The sacrifice of the red heifer was a preparatory ordinance for the cleansing of certain unclean individuals. To explain what I mean by that, an elder (as an example) may consecrate pure olive oil in a preparatory ordinance. That oil is then used in another ordinance, to bless the sick. The sacrifice of the red heifer is like consecrating the oil. The ashes that were the result of the sacrifice were then used to create the waters of separation, and used in an ordinance of cleansing.

The red heifer which was sacrificed was, as might be expected, without spot or blemish. Thus John writes of the Saviour, "And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin." (2) While modern usage of the word heifer suggests a cow that has not calved (suggesting purity), the word in an older sense (3) may have suggested instead a bull of great size (suggesting power and life). Also of interest was the requirement that the heifer had never been yoked, suggestive once again of purity (from the yoke of sin (4) ), but also of singleness of purpose (5), prepared from the outset for the sacrifice it would make to cleanse the people.

Notice that the heifer was taken out of the camp to be sacrificed, as Christ was offered as a sacrifice out of the city in both Gethsemane and on Calvary. It does not mention it here, but I imagine that the sacrifice would have been performed on the northern side of the camp, where there was less light. (Sacrifices at the altar were always done on the northern side. (6) )

The priest, as the representative of God for the sacrifice, did not slay the animal. That was for another to do. However, it was his role, in mediating between God and the people, to sprinkle the blood before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times. Seven is a number suggesting perfection, rectitude, righteousness; we see it in a cleansing capacity also in Naaman's cleansing in the Jordan (7). The tabernacle of the congregation was the meetingplace of all the people. So, the sacrifice was done in one sense for all, just as Christ's atonement was for all (8).

Then the heifer was burnt entirely in the sight of the priest; skin, flesh, blood, dung, everything. Cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet were added to the burning. Of course, we think of the wood of the cross, the hyssop on which the sponge of vinegar was raised, and the scarlet robes in which Christ was mocked. Cedar wood was also connected with circumcision, a token of the Abrahamic covenant, was used in building the temple, and the resin of the cedar was used in mummification in Egypt, thus symbolically associated with renewal of life. That everything of the heifer was burned reminds us that Christ gave His whole self as a sacrifice for sin, suffering both body and spirit (9), but also giving over every aspect of His life to the will of our Father (10).

The ashes created from this burnt sacrifice were then used to mix with water to make the waters of separation. But, as I have other things I need to get to now, I'll come back to that. Or so I hope.

(1) See, for example, Mosiah 16:14

(2) 1 Jn 3:5

(3) See Etymology of heifer

(4) Gal 5:1 'Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.'

(5) Moses 1:39 reminds us that Christ's work and glory is the immortality and eternal life of man. His entire life embodied that focus, as also His pre-mortal work, and his resurrected work. In this, He showed the perfect example of being qualified for the work, His eye also being single to the glory of God (as in D&C 4:5).

(6) Lev 1:11

(7) See 2 Kings 5

(8) D&C 19:16 'For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent.'

(9) D&C 19:18

(10) See, on a related note, Omni 1:26